COLLIER : NOTES ON THE SECTION TACHEA OF HELIX. I2I 



Normally, Tachea tiemoralis has a black or dark-coloured lip, but is 

 in some districts very often found with a white lip, like T. hortensis. 

 In Ireland, where I have found in some places large quantities of the 

 var. albolabiata, they have sometimes by the older collectors been 

 taken and recorded as hortensis. At Middletown, Bunbeg, co. 

 Donegal, we took this species, both with white and dark mouths in 

 all the different band-formulas including even (12345) var. coalita. 

 It is also found occasionally with yellow, rose, violet, or brown lip ; 

 but often these colours fade considerably. 



The band-formula is very variable. According to some who have 

 had the opportunities of extensively breeding this species, the ten- 

 dency is for the banded or unhanded forms to resemble their parents, 

 and if this is so, how are we to acconnt for the occurrence of such 

 variation in colour and banding on one single bank or hedge-row? 



One of our members, the late R. D. Darbishire, was I believe the 

 first to record some very heavy shells of this species from a Holocene 

 deposit at Dog's Bay, Conneraara, and on my two visits there I col- 

 lected a large quantity of them. They are a very heavy solid shell, 

 and have been identified by Herr Clessin as the H. tonnensis of 

 Sandberger. 



There is a considerable number of records of the monst. sinis- 

 trnm Fer. of this species. I have been fortunate enough myself 

 to take two alive, one near Ballyvaughan, co. Clare, and another at 

 Corbeyrier-sur-Aigle, Rhone A^alley. A great many examples have 

 been found near Bundoran, co. Donegal — according to Mr. R. 

 Welch, over 2,000 specimens, mostly Holocene, but they are still 

 found there alive, as when I was there \yith the late Dr. Chaster, he 

 was fortunate enough to find a living one. Nearly all the specimens 

 that I have of this form from Bundoran are 12045, which is a rather 

 unusual band-formula. 



H. (Tachea) hortensis Muller. — 



This species approaches the preceding one very nearly, and was for 

 a long time considered only a variety of it. It is distinguished from 

 H. iieinoralis by its smaller size, more compact shell, white aperture, 

 and generally thinner and more glossy shell. It is also not so brilli- 

 antly coloured, although I have taken some very red var. incaniata 

 Picard, on nut bushes at Corbeyrier. 



There is also less variation in the band-formula, as the bulk of the 

 specimens found are 00000 or 12345; whilst 00300 — very common 

 in H. nenioralis — is in this species comparatively rare.. 



It: extends much further north than H. neinoralis, as it has been 

 found in almost every county in England and Scotland, as far north 



